


RoH: Lower Decks

by aranel_took



Series: Tie-ins for JunoMagic's Resilience of Hope [2]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Five-Year Mission, Lower Decks, Reboot AU, STID aftermath
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-20
Updated: 2014-01-21
Packaged: 2018-01-05 07:05:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1091007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aranel_took/pseuds/aranel_took
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The continuation of the story of Lieutenant Len Amell, providing an alternate viewpoint to the events of JunoMagic's <i>Resilience of Hope</i>. </p>
<p>You need to be familiar with Juno's story for this story to make sense. It will probably also help if you've read Len's backstory, <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/1070446/chapters/2147961"><i>RoH: Hope for Tomorrow</i></a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Resilience of Hope](https://archiveofourown.org/works/947695) by [satismagic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/satismagic/pseuds/satismagic). 



> Once again, a big thanks to JunoMagic, for writing Resilience of Hope and letting me contribute Len to her universe.
> 
> And I'd also like to acknowledge (again) just how invaluable the _Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual_ by Rick Sternbach and Michael Okuda has been. The technobabble wouldn't exist without this awesome resource!
> 
> **NOTE: I am currently (as of November 2014) revising this story and its prequel, _Hope for Tomorrow_. Nothing major will be changing in the plot, it's still going to end up in the same place, so you won't really miss anything vitally important if you don't want to re-read the revised versions. However, I am expanding and adding more material to some of the chapters, fixing a couple continuity errors, and (hopefully) just improving it in general. The revisions are mostly done (but still need to be beta read), so I am hoping to have the new version ready to post in January at the latest. If you're a new reader, then I definitely recommend holding off on reading until the revision is posted. It really is better! :-D**

**Stardate 2260.126, 0530 hours, Deck 5, Scotty’s Quarters**

The alarm buzzed. Len groaned and rolled over to hit it. She rolled back into her spot and curled around Scotty. He was nice and warm and she just didn’t want to get out of bed. She lay there for a few seconds, then sighed and flipped back the blanket. She had to get up. The whole point of getting up at 0500 was so she could avoid anyone in the hallways as she snuck back to her quarters.

Len kissed his shoulder and sat up. She missed sleeping here. It had been two weeks since she’d moved back into her assigned quarters, and this was only the third time she’d spent the night since then. She hated this. She couldn’t wait until they were safely heading into deep space and could become “official”. Not that most of Engineering and a significant portion of the rest of the crew didn’t already have suspicions. But all they needed was some bureaucrats in Starfleet to get wrapped up in their precious Rules and Regulations, and she could find herself re-assigned to another ship and lose Scotty for the next five years. Getting up at 0530 wasn’t so bad compared to that. 

Len got out of bed, carefully adjusting the blanket so she wouldn’t wake Scotty. She retrieved her clothes—yesterday’s uniform—from the pile on the floor and got dressed.

“Yer not leaving without a kiss, are ye?” 

Len smiled and went over to Scotty’s side of the bed. She leaned down to kiss him and he slid his hand up her leg to caress her. She missed having this every morning, so much. “Love you,” she said mumbled against his mouth. 

“Love ya, sweetheart,” he said sleepily. 

He gave her a slight pinch and she giggled and skipped away.  “I’ll see you in about an hour.” She blew him another kiss and went out into the living room and to the door. A quick check of the corridor—empty—and she crossed the hall to the turbolift. That was one thing in their favor: the lift was right across from his door. 

“Deck 6.”

When she entered her quarters, she nearly tripped on a box when she went inside. Her dads had sent a bunch of her stuff a few days ago. They themselves would be here in two days to say goodbye to her, along with her Aunt Donna. 

Len showered and put on a new uniform, then went to empty a few boxes while she waited for Alpha shift to start. She slid the clarinet case under the chair next to her bed: she was going to have to pull it out at some point and make sure it was still in playable condition. She hadn’t touched it in seven years and she would probably be lucky to get a squawk out of it at the audition for the music group next month. 

The first box was full of yarn and needles. She hadn’t knit anything since before graduate school, but that at least didn’t require an audition to take up again. She moved the balls of wool into a drawer under her bed along with the needles. She had no idea if she could even get more yarn from the replicator, so her hobby would be short lived once she ran out of yarn. 

The next box was full of framed replacements of photos she’d lost in San Francisco. Mostly family photos, a few with Chekov as well. At the bottom was one that was more recent, a photo that Greg had insisted on taking during her dads’ visit for her birthday. It was on the boardwalk of the Taylor Institute, the bay behind them, and she and Scotty had an arm around each other. They were both smiling at the camera and it made her stomach flutter at how happy they looked. Sadly, it would have to stay in a drawer until they were ‘official’. 

Len sighed and put the photo of Scotty and herself into a drawer. This was really, really, really going to suck for the next month or so. 

 

**0930 ours, Deck 19, Engineering**

Len was halfway through creating the crew schedule for the first week of the mission when her comm beeped. “This is Lieutenant Amell.”

“Hello, Lieutenant. This is Lieutenant Canningham in supply. I would like to request someone to come down and check out a replicator. It seems to be misbehaving.” 

“Sure, Lieutenant. Someone will be down in a few.” She closed the comm and looked at today’s schedule. Most of maintenance had been working overtime to finish the last minute upgrades. There was no point in dragging someone away from that for a simple replicator malfunction. She could handle that herself and besides, she needed a break from schedules. 

She grabbed her tricorder and a small toolkit, then headed out of the office and down the stairs, passing Keenser on the way. “Could you tell Scotty I’ve gone down to supply?” Keenser gave her a quick nod and Len continued on to the turbolift. “Deck 22.”

Deck 22 mostly consisted of tanks of goo—organic and inorganic—and industrial size replicators. The quartermaster’s office was around the corner from the lift. A bored looking ensign was sitting at the requisitions desk. 

“I”m looking for Lieutenant Canningham,” Len said. 

The ensign nodded his head to the side. “She’s in her office, Lieutenant.”

Len went to the half-open door further along the corridor. Inside was a stark contrast to the industrial setting of the rest of the deck. There were fabrics everywhere in the office: stacked on shelves, draped over racks, swatches stuck all over the walls. In the center of it was a beautiful woman. Her lithe form looked out of place in the severe red uniform dress. Snow white hair curled over her shoulders and down her back, and it flowed around the woman as she gracefully moved around the room pinning more swatches to the walls. 

Len knocked on the door. “Lieutenant Canningham?”

The woman swirled around to look at her, her hair swirling with her, and Len imagined she’d look like a fairy if she wore some of the silky fabrics in her room. 

Len blinked as she looked at the woman’s face. She…wasn’t human, but Len couldn’t quite put her finger on _why_. “I’m Lieutenant Amell, from Engineering.” She held up toolkit and tricorder. “To fix your replicator.”

“Ah, thank you, Lieutenant!” The woman hurried past her and Len followed, out into the corridor and further back to where there was a bank of massive inorganic replicators. She led Len to the third one in the row. “This one isn’t working.” 

Len waved her tricorder over it. There was no power detected in the machine at all. She used a magnetic screwdriver to open the control panel and expose the machines innards. The problem was obvious: a connector wasn’t seated correctly. She snapped the plug into place and ran her tricorder again. Success! 

Len closed and sealed the panel, then rebooted the replicator. She set it to replicate a d20 die—it was the traditional thing engineers selected for a replicator test, but Len had no idea why. A red die appeared in the replicator. Len reversed it to recycle and the die dematerialized. 

“It was just a loose wire,” she said. “The maintenance crews have been in a rush, so someone must have missed it.” She’d let Chief Orci, the head of maintenance, know about it. They really didn’t need sloppiness with only three days left before launch. 

“Thank you so much, Lieutenant,” Canningham said. “I didn’t expect you to come down here yourself for such a little problem.” 

Len smiled. “I needed a break from scheduling.” She remembered her thoughts from this morning and waved towards the replicator. “Can you replicate yarn? For knitting?”

“Oh, you knit!” Lt. Canningham broke into a huge smile. “I don’t think there is any yarn programmed in, but I can try modifying a few rope programs to see what I can get.” She turned to return to her office and Len followed. 

“Thank you, Lieutenant. And there’s no rush,” Len said. “I have enough to last me a few months.”

“I would love to see your work,” the lieutenant said as they entered her office. “And please, call me Gwaloth.” 

Len smiled. “I’m Len. And I really don’t do anything more exciting that socks.”

“Socks are important in this form.” Gwaloth smiled, a little too wide. “Oh, I’m a Wraith, by the way. I know humans are not too familiar with my people, as we are not yet officially in the Federation. But I married a human, so here I am!” 

Len knew Wraiths were shapeshifters and their default form was a sort of giant slug. Which was hard to believe for the beautiful woman in front of her. “How long have you been married?”

“Ten years, now,” she said. “We met when a Federation delegation visited my homeworld. He intrigued me, because he instantly accepted me for who I was.” 

Len smiled and thought of how Scotty had supported her even when she a mess from dealing with the trauma of San Francisco. “I know what that’s like.”

“Oh?” Gwaloth cocked her head to the side. “Yes, you do look like a woman in love. Will he be on the mission?”

“Yes,” Len said. “Except we can’t really say anything about it yet. There are…complications. And until we can work those out, we have to keep it a secret.” 

“I see,” Gwaloth said. 

Len’s comm beeped. “Lieutenant Amell.” 

“Len, where are ya lass?” Scotty’s voice burst over her comm.

“Down in supply. Didn’t Keenser tell you?”

“Haven’t seen him. He’s probably up in the pipes again.”

Len giggled. “I’ll be back to the office in a few. Was there something you needed?”

“Well…no. Just wondering where ya were. I’ll see ya soon.” He cut the comm. 

Len smiled and slipped her comm back in her pocket. She looked up and sucked in her breath. Gwaloth was grinning at her. 

“Don’t worry, Len,” the Wraith said. “I won’t tell.”

 

**1145 hours, Deck 6, Mess Hall**

“Len!”

Gwaloth waved to her across the mess hall. Len abandoned the line to the replicator and went to greet her new friend. The Wraith was sharing her table with a dark-haired human woman dressed in a blue uniform. 

“I was going to contact you after lunch,” Gwaloth said. “I managed to replicate some yarn for you, a wool and a light cotton. For your socks.” 

“Oh, thank you.” Len hadn’t expected Gwaloth to work on it immediately.

“It just fascinated me so much, I had to start right away,” Gwaloth said. “I will keep experimenting to get other fibers, perhaps a silk next.” She glanced at the woman next to her. “Oh, this is Carolyn Paul. She crochets, so she’s also interested in the yarn. Carolyn, this is Len Amell. She is the Assistant Chief Engineer.” 

“Nice to meet you, Len,” the woman said with a smile. “I’m a teacher. Creative writing.” 

“Nice to meet you, Carolyn,” Len replied. She hadn’t really thought about that, but they _would_ need teachers on this mission if there were families. 

“We should start a group. For knitting and sewing,” Gwaloth said. “I think it would be quite enjoyable.” 

“Sounds like fun,” Len said. She wasn’t sure she’d make it into the music group, and she really should make more friends other than Scotty, Keenser, and Chekov. She could ask Emily and Carol if they were interested, too. 

“Will you join us for lunch?” Carolyn asked. 

“Oh, thanks, but I can’t,” Len said. “I just came up to grab something for me and Commander Scott.” 

Gwaloth’s mouth twitched into a knowing smile. “At least for a cup of tea?”

“Sure,” Len said. She supposed she could take some time to chat. Scotty was engrossed in making some adjustments to the warp core. He wouldn’t even remember it was lunch time unless she brought it to him. 

She went back to stand in line for a replicator and got herself a peppermint tea, then rejoined Gwaloth and Carolyn. She sat down at the table. 

“Should we meet once a week, or once a month?” Gwaloth asked. 

“Once a month, I think,” Len said. “I have…other responsibilities…” Not only work on the warp drive simulator, but free time with Scotty was now precious. “I’m also trying out for the music group next month.” 

“I am, too,” Carolyn said. “What do you play?”

“Clarinet,” Len said. “Or I can play bass or contrabass if they need it.”

“I play flute,” Carolyn said. “I probably don’t have much of a chance, but I figured, why not?”

“Same here,” Len said. 

There was suddenly a loud clatter, someone dropping a tray. Len jumped in surprise, but it didn’t affect her like it would have a year ago. Carolyn, on the other hand, instantly curled in on herself. She was pale and her eyes were wide with fear. Len knew that feeling too well. She wondered if Carolyn’s fear had come Admiral Marcus, too. 

“It’s okay,” Gwaloth said soothingly to her friend. “Just a tray.” 

Carolyn nodded and sat back up. “Sorry,” she said to Len. “I, uh, was in a car accident not too long ago. Loud noises…”

“You don’t have to explain,” Len said. “I was in therapy for eight months after San Francisco. My apartment was destroyed.”  

She shared a look with Carolyn, empathy between people who had to deal with too much shit in their lives. 

“How about in the evening, the first Wednesday of the month?” Carolyn said.

Len and Gwaloth both nodded in agreement. Len finished her tea and checked her comm. It was 1230 already. “Sorry, I need to go. It’s getting late, and Scotty gets cranky if he doesn’t eat the lunch I have to remind him to eat.”

Gwaloth and Carolyn both giggled. “Goodbye, Len,” Gwaloth said. 

“See you later, Len,” Carolyn added. 

Len waved to them and went back to stand in line at the replicators. 

 

**1230 hours, Deck 19, Engineering**

“I’ve joined a knitting group.” 

Scotty paused, fork halfway to his mouth. “A what?”

“Knitting,” Len said. She made the motion with her hands, of needles and yarn. “I met Gwaloth—Lieutenant Canningham, the Quartermaster—today. She figured out how to replicate yarn for me. And her friend Carolyn Paul—she’s one of the teachers—crochets. So we’re going to get together and…knit and crochet.”

“Will ya have time for that? Ya have yer research, and that music group…” 

Scotty looked a little…worried. “It’s only once a month.” Len smiled at him. “Don’t worry, I’ll still have plenty of time to spend with you.” 

“I’m not worried,” Scotty protested.

Uh-huh. “You should do something,” Len said. “We can’t spend every night reading technical journals together. What did you do before you met me?”

“I…read technical journals.”

“Right.” Len sighed. She was going to feel guilty about going out if he was sitting in his quarters by himself. She understood wanting to spend time alone, she had done it all the time before they started seeing each other. But if he was going to mope about her being off with friends on a regular basis, he needed to find something else to occupy him. “You could spend time with Pasha?” Chekov was essentially her other little brother. It would be good for them to…bond. Or something. “Maybe he could help you with some projects in engineering?”

Scotty snorted. “No. He’ll break my ship again.” 

Len rolled her eyes. Scotty just wasn’t going to let that go. “Fine. Then maybe—?”

“Ya don’t have to find things for me to do, Len.” Scotty sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. “I’m quite capable of amusing myself while yer off with yer girlfriends. In fact, I’ll be busy this evening and _you_ will have to find something else to do.”

“Oh?” That was surprising. Len thought he would have wanted to spend his last night of real free time with her. What could he be doing? Without her.

“Now who’s lookin’ worried,” Scotty said with a smirk.

“I’m not worried,” she shot back. Damn it. 

The smile fled from Scotty’s face. “I’ll be visitin’ Dr. McCoy this evening with a bottle of whisky,” Scotty said. “He’s saying good-bye to Jo this afternoon.”

“Oh.” She grimaced. “Poor guy.”

Scotty nodded. “Yer welcome to wait in my quarters though. I won’t be too late.” The smirk came back. “You can read some technical journals to pass the time.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Stardate 2260.128, 1330, San Francisco, Rigellian Regalia**

Len stopped outside the storefront, nervously sizing up the door. She’d passed this store before, had shyly glanced at the window displays, but had never had the courage to go inside. 

“Oh, come on!” Aunt Donna grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the door. “I’m not going to let you chicken out now,” she muttered as the door slid open and they went inside.

Rigellian Regalia was the most elite store on Earth—and elsewhere—for sex. Lingerie, toys, equipment, oils: you name it, the Orions could get it for you, from anywhere in known space. Donna had squealed with glee when Len had plucked up the courage to tell her that Scotty had given her a gift card to the place for Christmas. As soon as their big family farewell lunch at Barnes’ pub had finished, Donna had dragged her away, claiming they had to go shopping for “girl stuff”. Her dads had looked worried, Robbie and Chris looked confused, while Scotty turned a bright shade of red. 

Perfume stung Len’s nose as soon as they entered, spicy like peppers and cinnamon. She looked to the side, at a wall featuring a display of dildos that represented every species in the Federation and then some. Len blinked in shock at the massive, and frighteningly ridged, Klingon specimen.

“The sexy underwear is in the back,” Donna said, pushing her forward into the store.  

Len turned away from the display of silicone penises and let Donna guide her to the back of the store. The entire area was filled with racks of garments of various styles and fabrics.  

“I’m Laree. Can I help you find anything?” a sultry voice asked. An Orion woman with perfect olive skin and luxurious black hair sashayed around the end of the racks. She wore a lacy black camisole that highlighted her large breasts and a matching skirt that barely covered her ass. 

Len swallowed nervously. “Uh…” She stared at the riot of lingerie around her. She had no idea where to begin.

“She needs _sexy_ things,” Donna said, butting in. “She and her man are going on a deep space mission for five years, so they need to stock up.”  

“Oh,” the woman said, eyes widening with excitement. “Is it the Enterprise?”

Len nodded. 

“My cousin Gaila is on the Enterprise!” The woman gently took Len’s arm and led her into the racks. “I’ll give you a discount for being my cousin’s shipmate.” 

Len looked back at her aunt helplessly, but Donna just waved. “Have fun! I have some shopping of my own to do.” She looked at the Orion woman. “She has a 500 credit gift card. Make sure she spends _all_ of it.” Donna turned and disappeared into the store. 

“So, what do you and your partner like?” the woman asked. They stopped in front of a display of corsets, everything from delicate Victorian-style silk to shiny black leather with metal fittings. . “Romantic? Kinky? Fetish? Roleplay?”

“I…uh…” Len’s cheeks were burning. “I’m…not sure?”

“Aww.” The woman pouted sweetly. “So it’s a new relationship?” 

“Not really.” Len shrugged. “We just haven’t…experimented?” They hadn’t really done anything that would be specifically romantic or kinky, and they definitely hadn’t done any fetish. Mostly it was just…fun. Would joking about the Chief Engineer giving orders to the Assistant Chief be considered roleplay? 

“Hmm, so you’re shy.” Laree turned to scan the wall. “Mostly romantic, I think. But you should get at least one or two kinky for later.” She winked at Len and moved over to a display of teddies in a rainbow of colors. She picked one up that had ribbon ties all over it. “Maybe something to slow him down? Young men get so impatient. This will make him take his time to unwrap you.” 

Len giggled. “That’s not a problem. He, uh, doesn’t rush.” God, her face had to be crimson by now. “He’s…older.”

“Ohhh… Lucky girl!” Laree gave her a brilliant smile and hung the teddy back on the rack. “Then you’ll want something sensual. Silk. When he slowly caresses your body through the silk…” Laree closed her eyes and sighed deeply, nearly a moan, her hands moving briefly the touch her breasts as if savoring a memory. She smiled at Len. “You can’t go wrong with silk.” She sorted through a display of the teddies. “Where does he focus on you during sex? And where do _you_ like him to focus?”

“Um…” Len squirmed with embarrassment. She had never talked to anyone in such detail about her sex life—outside of Scotty—and Laree was just so _casual_ about it, like they were talking about favorite foods. “Breasts,” she managed to squeak out. “For both.” Her _ample nacelles_ , Scotty called them. She giggled.

Laree studied Len for a moment, then smiled broadly. “I think I have some ideas.”

She guided Len around the store, showing her a parade of lingerie that was nearly overwhelming. Laree used a handheld scanner to record the items Len liked before moving onto the next. After they had made their way around the entire lingerie section, Laree went to a terminal. She plugged in the scanner, then turned to scrutinize Len. “Okay, I just need your measurements.” She looked Len up and down, then turned to type something into the terminal. 

“You can get my measurements by looking at me?”

Laree grinned at Len over her shoulder. “Sweetie, I’ve been with a lot of bodies. I can figure your exact measurements within a centimeter or two.” She pressed a button on the terminal. “I’ve replicated the items in your size. They’re in changing room number two.” She gave Len a coy smile. “Do you need assistance?”

“No. Thanks.” Len blushed and hurried into the dressing room. 

She’d seen herself in lingerie before, thanks to Donna’s birthday gift, but some of these were…wow. Laree definitely knew how to choose the styles that could accentuate someone’s assets. Len was getting an ache between her legs just thinking about the look on Scotty’s face when he saw some of these. So now she would have to decide which ones to get. She was reluctant to ask Donna, that was just a bit too embarrassing a thing to ask your aunt—especially regarding the ‘kinky’ ones. Maybe Laree could help her decide? She poked her head out of the dressing room door. Laree was waiting outside, recycling a stack of garments back into a replicator. She looked up and smiled when Len opened the door. “Do they all fit?”

Len nodded. “Yes, they’re all good. I just need to decide which ones now.” 

Laree grinned. “They add up to 540 credits, but since you’re on the Enterprise, I’ll only charge you 500.” 

Len smiled back. “Thank you.” She turned to gather up the silky/lacy/leathery(!) pile and followed Laree to the front of the store. 

On the way she passed—oh, shit, it was Sulu and Barry Milekey, browsing the BDSM section. She caught Sulu’s eye and he raised his eyebrows at the mass of sexy underwear in her arms. Len thought she was going to burst into flames from embarrassment, but Sulu just gave her a wink and a thumbs up, then went back to looking at restraints with his boyfriend. 

When Len reached the counter, Donna was already there making her purchase. In front of her on the counter were vibrators of various sizes and shapes, at least a dozen bottles of oils and lubricants, some scarves from the restraints display, and myriad other objects that Len could only guess the function of. She hid her face in the lacy corset on the top of her pile. She did _not_ need to know this about her aunt. 

“Oh, nice selection,” Donna said, running her fingers through a bit of silk from Len’s armful of lingerie. Len looked up to see her aunt smiling broadly at her. “I’ll wait outside for you.” Donna grabbed a garish pink bag from the counter and walked away. 

“Will you want any other items,” Laree asked her. “I can replicate anything for you to test out in the back, maybe a dildo—?”

“No!” Len dropped the clothing on the counter and tried not to think of that huge Klingon penis. “No, thank you. I’m good.” 

“Okay,” Laree said with a sigh. “But anything you get from a ship’s replicator won’t be anywhere near the design quality and realism of Rigellian Regalia.” 

“I know,” Len said. “I’m fine.” Laree was nice, and only trying to be helpful, but Len had hit her embarrassment quotient for the day. 

Laree shrugged and started processing the purchase. 

When Len had finished, she had two large pink bags to carry. She hadn’t thought about that, getting this stuff back on the ship. She obviously couldn’t have Scotty help her, and they definitely couldn’t go back to the ship together with all these Rigellian Regalia bags. Crap. 

Donna was waiting for her out on the sidewalk. She grinned at Len and held up her bag. “This is for you, too.” 

Len stopped mid-step and sighed. “Donna…” 

Her aunt laughed. “I knew you would be too shy to buy these things for yourself.” She leaned over to kiss Len’s cheek. “Scotty will thank me for it,” she said in Len’s ear, then turned to walk away.

Len rolled her eyes and followed her. There was no use trying to argue. Also, she had to admit she was kind of curious about the things in that bag.

They headed back to Barnes’ pub and went inside. Scotty smiled broadly when he saw her come in the door, then his eyebrows shot up when he saw what she was carrying. Len tucked both of her bags under the table and sat down. Donna handed the other bag to Scotty. “This is yours, too,” she said, before sitting next to her brother. 

Scotty nodded his thanks, peeked into the bag, turned red, and hurriedly shoved it under the table next to the others.

“What’s in the bag, Uncle Monty?” Chris asked, far too innocently. Of course he knew where the pink bags were from, every cadet did. Scotty shot a glare at his nephew.   

Len sheepishly glanced at her dads. Of course they realized she was having sex with Scotty, but waving the bright pink evidence in front of their faces was a different matter. But they both looked…well not necessarily happy, but at least amused. Len relaxed.

They left the pub about an hour later. Engineering had to report for duty the evening before to get all the systems up and running. Len had been fine up to the moment when she hugged her dads goodbye. Then all three of them were in tears. “I’ll miss you,” she said, and kissed them each on the cheek. “I love you.” 

“Love you, hun,” Karl said and kissed her forehead.

Greg kissed her next. “Love you.” 

She turned away to retrieve her bags from Donna and get a tight hug from her aunt. “You have a good trip, sweetie,” her aunt said. 

Len got hugs from Robbie and Chris, while Scotty said goodbye to her dads. 

“Scotty, you’re going to watch out for our girl on this mission?” Karl asked sternly.

“Aye, sir.” Scotty slipped his arm protectively around Len. “Ya have my word.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Stardate 2260.129** , **1830 hours, Engineering**

The warp core was fired up and ready to go. Len’s stomach fluttered with excitement. It was finally here, the start of their five-year-mission. Five years into the unknown, like the explorers of the past. 

Scotty came up next to her and looked over the console. “How are we doin’, Lieutenant Amell?” 

“The engines are at 100%, sir. We’re good to go.” 

“Thank you, Lieutenant,” he said. As he turned away, he brushed his fingers over her hand. She smiled to herself as she continued to monitor the warp system. 

The captain’s voice came over the intercom. “Mr. Scott, how’s our core?”

“Purrin’ like a kitten, Captain,” Scotty said behind her. “She’s ready for a long journey.”

“Excellent!” the captain replied. 

Scotty came back to stand next to her. “There’ll be a speech. Starfleet brass can’t miss an opportunity to make speeches. We should find somewhere to watch it.” 

There were crew already gathering around the monitor below their office. Len and Scotty joined them and they were pushed together by everyone jostling for a view. Scotty’s hand found Len’s and they twined their fingers together, hidden inside the crush of excited crewmen. 

Admiral Abrams appeared on the screen and made his speech, giving them a ceremonial version of their mission objectives and wishing them luck. Len felt that flutter of excitement again and squeezed Scotty’s hand. It was time.

A shudder went through the ship as the helm engaged the engines. Len wanted nothing more than to continue gripping Scotty’s hand in hers, but the crowd was dispersing to their duty stations. “I’ll meet ya in the office, Lieutenant,” Scotty told her. “We have a few more schedules to go over.” 

Len was about to protest—they’d finished all the scheduling two days ago—then realized it was a convenient excuse for the chiefs to disappear into their office together. “Yes, sir,” she said, and headed up the stairs. 

She sat at her desk and pulled up the relevant files on her monitor, in case anyone else came in, and waited. 

Twenty minutes later, he finally made it up to the office. He went straight to his desk and sat down. “Chief Engineer’s Log, Stardate 2060.129. The ship is now underway on her Five Year Mission. All systems are operating at one hundred percent. The starboard plasma injector is running a little hot, but not outside normal operating parameters. Lieutenant Keenser is keeping an eye on it.” 

He closed the log file and opened another one. “Chief Engineer’s Personal Log. Stardate 2060.129. The ship is now underway on her Five Year Mission. Quite an exciting day for all of us. And right now, I’d like to snog my Assistant Chief Engineer senseless.”

Len leaned over from behind her monitor to look at him. “Is that the standard operating procedure for embarking on a mission? The Chief Engineer snogs the Assistant Chief?”

Scotty leaned back in his chair and smirked at her. “It is now.” He patted his leg, inviting he over. “We wouldn’t want ya violatin’ procedures now, would we?”

Len stood up, reached back to engage the lock on the door, then slowly made her way towards him. “Hmm, that _would_ be awkward, wouldn’t it. What would I tell the Captain at my disciplinary hearing?” She stopped at the edge of his desk and stood at attention. “Yes Captain, I willfully violated the engineering operating procedures and did not let the Chief Engineer stick his tongue down my throat.”

Scotty reached forward and grabbed her hand to pull her onto his lap. “Monty—!” His mouth pressed over hers and, yeah, there was his tongue. He shifted her around so she was straddling him, keeping the kiss going the whole time. She moaned when his hands found her breasts.

“I want ya, lass,” he murmured against her mouth. One hand was on her ass while the other was still massaging a breast and making her moan. “I want to strip ya naked and lick every inch of ya, then I want to bend ya over the desk and—“ An alert went off on his PADD. “Fuck!” He dropped his face to her chest. “I forgot, I have a briefing in a half hour,” he mumbled between her breasts. 

Len sighed and kissed the top of his head. “Well, this probably isn’t the best location anyway.” They wouldn’t exactly be keeping their secret if they both left the office looking well fucked. She pushed herself up from his lap and straightened her uniform. Something on his monitor caught her eye. She gasped. “Did you know your personal log is still recording?” Crap.

Scotty got a mischievous grin on his face. _He wouldn’t…_ Len reached for Delete, but he lunged over and hit Save first. 

“You’re saving that?”

“It’s important documentation of our new mission protocol.” He grinned at her.

Len rolled her eyes but let it drop. It was his personal log so it wasn’t public, and it wouldn’t be unsealed until they were long dead. Scotty’s future biographer was sure in for a surprise, though. She headed back to her desk. 

“Uh, Len?” he asked. “Could ya go somewhere else?” Len turned and frowned at him. Scotty shrugged and pointed at his lap. “I really need to have some not-sexy thoughts right now, and you being here doesn’t help. At all.” 

She giggled. “Got yourself a little problem there?” 

He gave her an indignant huff. “It’s a rather _large_ problem, as ya well know!”

Len giggled again and went to the door. “Fine, I need to go take readings from the simulator anyway.” She turned to look at him over her shoulder, hip pushed to the side. She pouted. “It’ll just be me and the warp core simulator. All alone together.”

Scotty glared at her and squirmed in his seat. “You. Are. Evil.” 

Len blew him a kiss and left the office, practically skipping down the stairs. Served him right for saving that log. 

 

**2030 hours, Deck 19, Chief Engineer’s Office**

Len made her way back up the stairs to the chief engineer’s office. While she was finishing up in the lab, Scotty had called her on the comm and asked her to come to the office when she was done. Which was strange, because she had figured that he’d want her to go to his quarters after his briefing, to pick up where they left off.

She heard multiple voices as she reached the door, and hesitated. But surely he wouldn’t have called her if he had a meeting he didn’t want interrupted. She opened the door. 

“There she is,” Scotty said. He was tipped back in his chair, feet on his desk, a glass of whisky in hand. From the tone of his voice, he wasn’t quite drunk, but he was definitely happy. Len exchanged smiles with him. McCoy was sitting in the extra chair near her desk, whisky in hand, while an Orion woman was sitting at her desk. Len had a flashback to Mira Romaine sitting in the same spot, and the tiniest bit of jealousy flared in her gut.

“Gaila,” Scotty said. “This is Lieutenant Len Amell. My new Assistant Chief Engineer.”

Len nodded to the visitors. “Hello, Dr. McCoy. Hello, Gaila.” 

She assumed this was Laree’s cousin. Gaila was as gorgeous as Laree, except she had red curls that tumbled carefully around the perfect green skin of her face. What was it with gorgeous women using her desk? But unlike Romaine, Gaila greeted her with a huge, friendly smile. “It’s nice to meet you, Len.” 

“Well come in, lass! We’re toasting our voyage!” Scotty waved her to the chair next to his desk. 

Len closed the door behind her and made her way over to Scotty. He pulled a bottle from his desk drawer, removed the cap, and handed it to her as she sat down. A chocolate porter. “Thanks.” She remembered just in time not to lean forward and kiss him. 

“I had Barnes get ya the porters and some of yer chocolate vodka, along with my whisky.” He made a face at her and she giggled. “I put it all in a couple crates marked Radioactive. Security couldn’t get it out of the loading dock fast enough.” Real alcohol, especially in those amounts, could get you in trouble on a starship. They were supposed to use the synthehol versions stocked in the rec room bar or the replicators. 

McCoy chuckled. “I ship my bourbon in crates marked Mutagenic.” 

“You guys are lucky,” Gaila said. “I have to do it the old fashioned way.” She pouted, batted her eyelashes, and stuck out her chest. 

“And how many bottles did ya get through this time,” Scotty asked.

“Only brought one bottle this time.” She reached into a bag at her feet and pulled out a small, slim bottle filled with bright blue liquid. “We’ll have some before you boys need to run off to that dinner.”

“How did you get that?” Bones asked.

“Friend of a friend,” Gaila said. “I promised I wouldn’t name names.”

It was Romulan ale, Len realized. Illegal in the Federation due to the trade embargo with Romulus. It was even harder to get after the situation with Nero, which had caused an increase in tensions between the Romulans and the Federation. The ale was reputed to pack a massive punch. 

“Any of you had this before?” she asked. “I heard it’s pretty wild.”

Len shook her head. It was legendary at the Academy, a Holy Grail that cadets talked about in whispers and rumors swirled about it being available at certain exclusive student parties. No one she knew had ever had any. 

“Once. In med school,” McCoy said. He grimaced and shook his head. “Not doing that again. It’s all yours.”

“Never had the pleasure,” Scotty said. “But I’m looking forward to it. Maybe it will help me get through that bloody dinner we have to go to at twenty-one thirty.”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” McCoy said. “That stuff has a kick.”

“I think I can handle a small drink, Doctor,” Scotty said.

From the bemused look on McCoy’s face, Len wondered if Scotty would regret those words.

“How do you like being on the Enterprise, Len?” Gaila asked. “Scotty said it’s your first posting on a ship.” 

“It’s… exciting.” She worked hard not to glance at Scotty, to not give anything away. “I did an internship on her, actually, during her final construction in orbit. I worked on the installation of the warp propulsion system, and…” She realized she was babbling. “Then I took the job for the refit.” She took a swig of her ale. 

“What she’s not telling you is how brilliant she is,” Scotty said. “She not only proposed a better way to reinforce the structure and stability of the matter/antimatter reaction chamber, she’s also working on a research project to increase the efficiency of the warp propulsion system using a magnetic chamber to encase the injector heads. And all in her spare time.” Scotty was beaming at her. She couldn’t help but smile back. 

“I have no idea what you just said,” McCoy said, shaking his head.

Gaila fixed Len with an inquisitive stare, then did the same to Scotty. She smiled. “You two are sleeping together,” she stated, as matter-of-factly as if she’d said ‘you two are engineers’.

Len bit her lip and dropped her gaze. How did she _know_? They’d only just met! She glanced at Scotty, who was now a bright shade of red. 

Bones tipped his head back and laughed. “Good call, Gaila.” He lifted his glass to the Orion girl in a salute. “What tipped you off?”

Gaila shrugged. “It’s obvious, isn’t it? Scotty knows her favorite alcohol and stocked up on it for her. His eyes light up when he talks about her. Len blushes whenever she looks at him. And if that wasn’t enough, Scotty’s pheromones exploded when Len walked into the room. And hers are equally strong.” 

Len stared at the woman. First it was temperature, now it was pheromones. Maybe Gaila and Keenser should start a matchmaking service together. 

“Hey, now.” Scotty glared at Gaila. “Our pheromones are none of your business.”

Gaila ignored him. “So why are you keeping it a secret?” She smiled broadly at them, obviously delighted. “You two are adorable together!” 

“We…um,” Len looked at Scotty, not sure how much he wanted to reveal.

“Starfleet could get upset about the chain of command,” Scotty said. “So we decided to wait until we had plenty of distance from the bureaucrats before we go public.”

“Are you sure that would be a problem on this ship?” McCoy gave Scotty a pointed look. Len guessed he was referring to the Captain and Commander Spock. 

“It’s different with us,” Scotty said. “I’m Len’s direct supervisor.”

“Different than who?” Gaila asked. 

“I’m sure you’ll find out soon enough,” McCoy said. “For now, it’s… private.”

“Oh, you mean Kirk and Spock.” Gaila giggled at the surprised looks on their faces. She reached out her leg to nudge McCoy’s knee with her foot. “Come on, Bones. You know how nurses gossip. I dated one from Starfleet Medical this summer while doing some coursework at the Academy. Also, I’m friends with Nyota.”

Bones winced. “How is she doing with this?”

Gaila shrugged. “She’s accepted it wasn’t going to work.” She grinned. “And she maybe dropped a few hints there’s a new guy. But enough about sex lives we aren’t allowed to discuss.” She looked over at Len and Scotty. “So what gets you engineers going? Do you do it up against the warp core or something?” She looked between them, then squealed. “Oh my gods! You do! Right here in Engineering?”

Bones was gaping at them. Scotty was back to being bright red, and Len was sure she was the same shade. “Nae, of course not!” Scotty rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “It was in the warp core simulator,” he mumbled. 

“That is so… kinky!” Gaila grinned at Scotty. “I’ve never seen you show the slightest interest in _anyone_ , I thought you were asexual or celibate or something. And it turns out you’re secretly having kinky sex with a hot young woman in a warp core simulator!” 

Len couldn’t help but giggle at the look of horror on Scotty’s face. “Way to go, Len!” Gaila said gleefully.  She leaned over so they could trade high-fives. “You’ll have to tell me the juicy details sometime.”

“How about that Romulan Ale now?” Scotty drained his whisky and shoved the glass across the desk to Gaila. He pulled out another glass for Len, then Gaila poured for the three of them after a last attempt to get the doctor to join them. Len took her glass of the blue liquid, only about a shot, and tossed it back. 

It was…probably what the matter/antimatter reaction tasted like. There was flare of heat in her mouth, with an underlying bitterness. Then the heat spread throughout her body, making her gasp when it reached her… sensitive areas. She squirmed in her seat and looked at Scotty. 

Scotty had a dazed expression on his face. “Fuck,” he breathed.

McCoy laughed. “I warned you.” He stood up from his chair and headed to the door. “I need to get ready for that dinner. I’ll make your excuses to the Captain.” 

“What about an antitox?” Scotty asked, his speech slightly slurred.

“Doesn’t work very well on Romulan Ale. This is going to have to wear off the old-fashioned way.”

Gaila looked at them, confused. “I don’t feel much of anything. Just a little lightheaded.”

“You’re Orion,” McCoy said. “Most Orions metabolize it quickly.”

“Bummer.” Gaila slumped back in her chair and pouted. “What a waste of credits.”

Len was feeling really warm now, in really interesting places, and her head felt like it was floating. Scotty was looking at her like he was about to pounce on her. She wished he would.

“In humans it gives them an instant drunk. And for some, it also makes them incredibly horny.” Bones waved his hand towards Len and Scotty. “I’ll let you guess which group those two fall into.”

Len giggled. Horny. It was a ridiculous word. But it was exactly what she was now. She grinned at Scotty and licked her lips. She really wanted to kiss him. Then push him to the floor and fuck him. 

She ended up doing the pouncing. Right onto his lap, straddling him. Their mouths met, so hard and fast there was a brief flare of pain in her lip, and his hands seemed to be everywhere at once. 

“Oh, great, there they go,” she heard the doctor complain behind her. “Let’s get out of here, Gaila.”

“Wow, they are _really_ —”

“Let’s _go_ , Gaila!”

Len was barely aware of the office door opening and closing, because Scotty was sucking on her neck and making her moan. She ground herself on his lap and felt just how much he wanted her. She grinned and licked his ear. “Your rather large problem has returned,” she panted.

“Aye, lass.” He shoved his hands up under her shirt to her breasts. “And this time you can stay and troubleshoot it.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Stardate 2260.130, 0800 hours, Chief Engineer’s Office**

Len’s head was pounding. She felt like she’d drunk at least three bottles of cheap wine last night, but it had only been the porter and one little glass of Romulan Ale. And she knew the pain in her skull wasn’t from the porter. She had taken the anti-tox before she went to sleep, but just as Dr. McCoy had warned them, it didn’t do much.  

She winced as she woke up her monitor, and blue light pierced her retinas. This was the part where she vowed to never touch Romulan Ale ever again.

Scotty didn’t look much better. He was also squinting painfully at his monitor. He gripped his mug of coffee like his life depended on it. 

“Did the Captain come see you last night?” she asked. After their quickie in the office yesterday, they had gone home to their separate quarters. Scotty hadn’t wanted her there if the Captain decided to come question him about missing the dinner. Explaining why he was sleeping with his Assistant while drunk on an illegal substance wouldn’t have been the most auspicious start to the voyage. 

Scotty shook his head and winced in pain. “Nae, lass. Not a peep out of him. Lucky for me.” He drained his cup and carefully slid his chair around to get another. “Do ya want one?” he asked, gesturing at the coffee maker.

“Yeah,” Len said. She squinted at her monitor, her eyes open just enough to check her schedule for today. She had a meeting this morning with the section supervisors, so they could get to know their new Assistant Chief Engineer. And this afternoon she had an appointment with Dr. McCoy for a physical. 

Len folded her arms on her desk and carefully set her forehead on them. “Just shoot me,” she whined. 

Scotty set the mug of coffee on her desk. “Drink up, lass. The caffeine will help take the edge off.”

 

**1300 hours, Sickbay**

The hangover was mostly gone by the time Len showed up in sickbay for her physical. She’d gulped down three mugs of coffee before her meeting this morning, which helped. Of course, that meant she had to pee halfway through, but at least meeting with the supervisors had gone well. They all appeared to respect her position, though she was young and inexperienced. That was a huge weight off her shoulders. 

“Lieutenant Amell,” McCoy said. He came towards her with PADD in hand and a grin on his face. “How are you feeling today?” 

“Better now,” she said. “Not so great this morning.” 

“I did warn you,” he laughed. He gestured to an exam table. “Just hop up there and we’ll get your initial scan.” 

Len lay back on the table and McCoy tapped the console to start the scan. The table whirred underneath as the scan ran the length of her body. 

The doctor looked over the readings above the bed. “Everything looks good,” he said. “A slight case of alcohol poisoning…” He raised an eyebrow at her. “But otherwise you’re good.” He read the PADD in his hand. “Dr. Matham notes you had some trouble this summer? A bad enviro suit? Severe dehydration?”

Len winced. “That was my fault. I was stupid. It won’t happen again.”

“Well, at least you can admit it. Unlike some people in this crew.” He tapped at the PADD again. “Your contraceptive booster is due in a few days. Would you like to take care of it now?”

Len blushed. The problem with your doctor being good friends with your boyfriend is that he knew all of your personal details. “Sure.” 

McCoy put down the PADD and retrieved a hypo from the table. “Have you tried the implant?” he asked as he dialed in the settings on the hypo. 

“Yeah.” Len pushed herself upright. “I had a reaction to it.” The side effects had felt like the worst case of PMS ever, and lasted until the implant was removed.    

McCoy pressed the hypo to her arm. “Unfortunately it’s a common problem.” The hypo hissed and Len flinched from the sting. “You’ll get sent a reminder every month for your booster. The last thing we need on this mission are little surprises.”  

Len nodded and flexed her arm to work out the sting. Definitely some anger in his tone. Scotty wasn’t kidding about McCoy being unhappy with families being on the ship. “I already have a reminder in my schedule,” she said brightly.  

“We’ll see you next month, then, Lieutenant Amell,” McCoy said as he made a few more notes on his PADD. He leaned close to her. “I’m going to invite Scotty over to watch a Parrisees Squares match after the staff meeting tonight,” he whispered. “You’re welcome to join us, Len.” 

“Thanks, but I’ll let you guys have your fun,” she whispered back. She and Scotty needed to get used to spending more time apart. Also, she found most sports to be incredibly dull to watch. She slid off the table. “Thank you, Doctor.”

 

**1800 hours, Deck 6 Mess Hall**

The worst part about spending time apart from Scotty was eating alone. While it wouldn’t be unusual for the Chief Engineer and the Assistant Chief to occasionally eat together, every day was kind of pushing it.

Len scanned the mess hall, trying to find any of her friends. Most of the faces were strangers now, since most of the refit crew had not volunteered for the mission. Emily and Carol were still onboard, but both had other plans tonight. So she was here alone, staring out at the crowded mess hall and fighting the creep of anxiety. 

“Would you like to join us, Len?”

Carolyn Paul was next to her, with an older man that Len assumed was her father. She hadn’t met Commander Paul yet, but knew from Scotty that he was head of diplomacy on the mission. “Sure,” Len said. 

She followed the Pauls to an empty table. “Len, this is my father, Michael Paul,” Carolyn said as they sat down. “Dad, this is Len Amell. She’s starting the knitting group with me and Gwaloth.”

“Ah, yes.” Commander Paul nodded to her. “Pleased to meet you, Lieutenant Amell.” 

“Nice to meet you,” Len said. Carolyn’s father reminded Len of a literature professor she’d had at the Academy: proper, eloquent, and a bit gruff.

“Carolyn tells me you are the Assistant Chief Engineer,” Paul said. 

The commander didn’t say it—he was an expert in etiquette, after all—but Len could see the unspoken part of that sentence: ‘you seem too young for the job’. 

“Yes. It was a surprise to be offered the job this summer, since I was just out of the Academy graduate program. But Commander Scott was impressed with some of my projects.” Len shrugged. She always felt weird talking about her accomplishments, but she thought she should explain to the commander why someone so young was Assistant Chief Engineer. She had their lives in her hands, after all.

“Perhaps I could bring my students down for a tour?” Carolyn asked. “It would be inspiring to see the heart of the ship.”

“I think we could arrange that,” Len said. “I’ll need to ask Commander Scott, but I’m sure I can convince him to let us do a tour.” She could just imagine Scotty’s face when she told him she was going to lead a group of children around Engineering. But she wasn’t going to take no for an answer. It would be good for the kids to see how the ship worked—she couldn’t help but think of Ayumi and her fears.

They ate in silence for a while. Len noticed how Commander Paul would glance at his daughter, like he wanted to reach out and grab her into an embrace at any moment. He reminded Len of her dads, when she went home after escaping the destruction of San Francisco. Carolyn’s car accident must have been severe.

“How long have you been a teacher, Carolyn?” Len asked.

“I’m new to the job, actually,” Carolyn said. “I started out as an intern with PATS, then I worked for the Federation Council, as a junior aid with the Diplomatic Corps.”

Planets Against Trafficking of Sentients. They had been in the news recently. The Federation was making the investigation of slavery one of its top priorities. “Wow. That’s quite a change in career.” 

Carolyn nodded. She kept her eyes on her plate, nervously picking at her food. “It was…difficult. I needed a job with less stress. And I really enjoy writing.”

She didn’t elaborate any further, and from Carolyn’s reaction and the dark scowl on her father’s face, Len realized she’d ventured into painful territory. Subject change. “I wrote a lot, as a teenager,” Len said. She giggled. “I used to write Lord of the Rings fan fiction.” 

That perked Carolyn up. “Oh, I love transformative fiction. A new look at old stories…you must let me read it some time!” 

Len shrugged. “They’re not very good. Mostly just fluff. My dads introduced me to the old movies from the 2000s and I had a _huge_ crush on Pippin, so they’re mostly about him. I guess I have a thing for Scottish accents.” 

She realized what she’d said. So did Carolyn, who looked at her with raised eyebrows. Even Commander Paul was trying hard not to smirk at her. 

Len was sure her face was crimson. “What do you like to write about, Carolyn?”

 

**2130 hours, Engineering**

Len felt kind of stupid now, worrying about Scotty not having a life while she was with her friends. He was hanging out with Dr. McCoy and here she was, wandering Engineering at 2130 because she was bored. She could have joined them—the doctor did invite her, after all—but this would be good for them. Even if she was bored.

After her dinner with Carolyn and Commander Paul, Len went to check on the simulator. It was running a longer test and wouldn’t be finished for two more days, so there really wasn’t much to do in the lab. She called a few friends, but everyone else was busy: Emily was playing volleyball on the rec deck, Carol was working on a new research project of her own, and Gwaloth was having a quiet evening with her husband. Even Chekov and Keenser were busy—together, no less, a friendship that had sprung up from her and Scotty. Chekov had finally found someone who could really challenge him in tri-dimensional chess.  

Len had considered just staying in her quarters, reading or knitting, but it was too much like her life before the _Enterprise_. She didn’t want to be that person anymore, alone and hiding away from the world. So she had come down to engineering. 

She stopped to chat with Lt. Frank Gabler, the supervisor for Beta shift. Len had actually worked with him during her internship on the _Enterprise’s_ construction. They discussed her warp drive research and her promotion. She felt somewhat guilty about that, that Frank hadn’t been promoted instead. He must have seen something in her face, because he’d grinned at her and said, “Better you than me! I have all the responsibility I want as a shift supervisor.”

Now she was up on Deck 18, walking the catwalk that overlooked Engineering. It was so quiet in here now, relatively speaking, without all the maintenance contractors and construction workers running around working on the refit. Just the hum of the pipes and the rustling of…wait, that wasn’t right. 

Len followed the strange noise to a Jeffries tube and hoisted herself up and inside. A few meters up the tube, a foil wrapper of some kind was stuck to a vent. It was fluttering in the rush of air and causing the noise. Len sighed and plucked it from the vent. It was from a candy bar.  She would have to send a memo tomorrow morning about littering in the Jeffries Tubes.


	5. Chapter 5

**Stardate 2260.132, 0800 hours, Chief Engineer’s Office**

“I’ve got an interesting message this morning,” Scotty said, first thing when Len walked into the office. 

She went over to kiss him—two nights so far they’d slept apart!—and looked at the PADD in his hands. “What is that?”

“A Klingon warp drive.” Scotty expanded the image on the screen to show the details. “John Harrison wants my advice on it.” 

“Oh?” Len turned away to get her coffee. “Why does he want advice on Klingon warp drives?”

Scotty took a deep breath, a hitch of excitement in his voice. “He has a ship.”

Len nearly dropped her mug. “He what?” Nobody in the Federation had a Klingon ship. The Klingons guarded their property to the death: literally. “How the fuck did he manage that?”

“I didnae get all the details, but I believe he may have liberated it from Capella IV.”

Capella IV. That was where Harrison had beamed to during the thing with Marcus, using Scotty’s ‘stolen’ transwarp technology. The rumor mill had said he’d beamed all the way to Qo'noS, but of course that was ridiculous: the amount of energy required to beam from Earth to Qo'noS would roughly equal a small supernova. He had instead taken a ship to the Federation-Klingon border and beamed to Capella IV, which was claimed by both the Federation and Klingons for mineral rights. Uhura had mentioned Harrison had been there. The reason was probably above Scotty’s security level.

“What do you know about Klingon warp drives?” Len asked. The diagram looked similar to their own designs, but there were some obvious differences, too. 

“Not much. Yet.” He scrolled through the list of files Harrison had sent him and opened another, a photo of the Klingon reaction chamber. “But I’ll know a lot more if Harrison keeps sending me these files.”

Len sipped her coffee and went to sit at her own desk. “Am I even authorized to see that?” 

Scotty shrugged. “I doubt that _I’m_ authorized to see it. But Harrison wanted another opinion on the ship and her systems. I suppose I should be honored he thought of me.”

“Yeah,” Len said, giggling. “When a super-genius Augment asks your opinion, that is definitely something to be proud of.”

“I want yer thoughts on it, too,” Scotty said. “I’m sendin’ a copy to yer PADD.”

“Monty…” Len winced as her PADD beeped, signaling that files had been received. “I have Top Secret—no, probably Super Duper Double Top Secret—files on my PADD now.”

“If anyone asks, I gave ‘em to ya,” he said. Scotty looked back at his own PADD and frowned. “I’m not sure many higher-ups in Starfleet even know Harrison has this thing.”

Great. Len sighed. They were all going to go to prison for having stolen Klingon plans of a stolen Klingon ship. Hopefully they’d let her and Scotty have conjugal visits. But since she was going to go to prison anyway… 

Len opened the files and began reading.

 

**Stardate 2260.133, 2100 hours, Scotty’s Quarters**

Len stretched out on the bed and slid her naked leg over Scotty’s naked leg. “Love you,” she murmured, sighing happily. She missed sleeping in his quarters and having sex whenever they wanted. The end of Federation space couldn’t come fast enough for her. 

“Love ya, lass,” Scotty murmured back. He reached down to pull the blankets up over them. Len snuggled underneath them and he put his arm around her. “I miss ya bein’ here.” 

“Not much longer.” If she repeated it enough, she’d convince herself it wasn’t that long. But they had at least a month left before they were safely out of range of other Starfleet vessels that could take her back to Earth for reassignment. Maybe they were being paranoid, but she didn’t want to risk it. 

Len lay her head on his shoulder and draped her arm over his belly. The alarm was already set for 0530, so she could sneak out of here before the shift change. She closed her eyes and sighed, pressed against Scotty’s warm skin. She missed this so much.

She snapped awake, heart pounding. There was a noise. It seemed to be someone yelling and it was coming from McCoy’s quarters. The sound proofing prevented her from hearing what was being said, but it sounded furious. She checked the chrono: 0130.

“I’ll go see what’s goin’ on,” Scotty said. He rolled out of bed and pulled his clothes on. “No tellin’ what’s got Bones in a rage.” 

“You’ll be all right?” Len asked. “Maybe you should call security?”

Scotty shrugged. “I’ll be fine. Bones is more bluster than anythin’ else.” He pulled on his boots and went through the bathroom door. 

When the door to McCoy’s quarters opened, Len could make out his yelling. Something about ‘fucking incompetent police’ and ‘how can they not find her’. And now that his voice was clear, Len could hear the fear under the anger. She went cold and drew the blankets around her. It must be something about his daughter. Something must have happened to her.  

She considered getting up and going over with Scotty, but there had been other voices beneath McCoy’s. One of them—calm and low—had sounded like Commander Spock. Now was not the time to reveal their relationship to the First Officer. 

Len lay huddled under the blanket, listening as the angry voices gradually died down. About a half hour later, Scotty came back through the bathroom. He shed his clothes and crawled back under the blankets with her. “Are ya awake?” he asked. 

“Yeah.” She rolled over to put her arm around him. “What happened?”

“His daughter’s gone missing on Earth,” he said. “Not a trace of her. Apparently she was tryin’ to head home to Georgia from San Francisco.” Scotty rubbed his hand over his eyes and blew out a breath. “Fuck! As if he didn’t have enough to worry about.” 

“Can he catch a ship back to Earth?” Len couldn’t imagine what the doctor was going through. While Earth was safe, and the odds were Joanna was okay, there were still accidents and there were still the occasional crazy people who might hurt a child. San Francisco to Georgia was a long journey for a little girl on her own.

“I suppose we can drop him off at a starbase or a colony. But we may hear somethin’ before then, hopefully good news.” Scotty shook his head and sighed. “Dinnae know what that lass was thinkin’, runnin’ away like that.” 

“Girls, especially pre-teen girls, do impulsive things when they’re upset,” Len said. “She lost her mother last year. Now she’s just essentially lost her father, because he chose to leave her behind and send her off to another planet. I don’t really blame her for running away.” 

“Ya know why he didnae want her on the ship,” Scotty retorted. 

“I’m not trying to argue the reasons with you,” Len said. “I’m just saying that if my dads had left me behind like that, especially if it was after losing one of them, I’d have been very angry and confused, too.” She sighed and pressed her cheek to his shoulder. “Try to see Joanna’s side of this.” 

“Joanna didnae think about what this would do to her father. Bones is scared to death and drownin’ his fears in a bottle of bourbon.”

They lay in silence. Len didn’t want to argue with him. She didn’t have the energy for it at 0200 and it wasn’t worth fighting over. It was Dr. McCoy’s decision and her opinion didn’t matter.  

“I’m sorry,” Scotty said, voice shaking. “I’m worried what this is going to do to him. Especially if…if it doesn’t have a good ending.” 

Len hugged him. “I know.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Stardate 2260.134, 0800 hours, Chief Engineer’s Office**

Len was exhausted. 0530 had come far too quickly. She’d had trouble sleeping, worried about Dr. McCoy and his daughter, which in turn led to a nightmare about San Francisco. Scotty had promised to check on the doctor before he came to work this morning.

Scotty burst through the door of their office, startling Len so she nearly dropped her coffee. “Jim found her,” he said excitedly. “He found Joanna! She’s on the Enterprise!” 

“Oh my god.” Len set her mug down. “Where was she? Is she okay?”

“Jim found her in one of the nurseries. But she’s been hidin’ in the Jeffries tubes, apparently,” he said. 

Len sucked in her breath. “Monty, if she’d gotten into the wrong tube…” Some of the Jeffries tubes accessed dangerous conduits and panels. If the girl had touched the wrong thing, she could have been seriously injured. Or vaporized. 

“I know, sweetheart. But I’m not tellin’ Bones that.” Scotty sighed. “At least the wee lassie is safe.”

Len stood up to hug him. Scotty had been so worried about his friend, he needed some comfort as well. “How is he doing?” 

“Better now that his lass is with him, safe and sound.”

Safe and sound and on the Enterprise. So much for leaving his daughter behind. She stepped back. “So Joanna will be on the ship after all?”

Scotty shrugged. “Looks that way. We can’t turn around and take her back to Earth now, and after all this I doubt he’d put her on any random ship to take her back.” 

“Maybe this will be good for him? Having her here?” 

“Or it will cause him more stress.” Scotty moved around her to go sit at his desk. “He already works too much, drinks more than he should, and tends to isolate himself from others.” 

“Hmm,” Len said. She sat back down at her desk. “That sounds familiar.” She peered around the side of her monitor at him.

“I _did_ ,” Scotty said. He smiled. “But then I met you, lass.” 

 

**Stardate 2260.134, 1300 hours, Scotty’s Quarters**

Len took the afternoon off and used the opportunity to work on her clarinet. She had auditions in a month, so she needed to start practicing. But first, she had to replace the pads. She could have just replicated a whole new clarinet, but she liked the idea of using _hers_ , the one she’d played since she was eleven. She had it assembled and laid out on a spot she’d cleared on Scotty’s desk in his quarters. Her quarters didn’t have a large desk, nor did she have the plethora of tools. 

The door to the bathroom swished open. She figured that Dr. McCoy was coming over to look for Scotty, but instead it was a young girl with mousey brown hair and wide blue eyes that came through the bedroom door. 

“Hello,” Len said. “You must be Joanna.” 

The girl nodded. “You can call me Jo,” she said. She looked around the quarters. “Dad’s sleeping, so I came over to visit Scotty. Did he move?”

Len bit her lip. Crap, she hadn’t thought about that. “Uh, no. These are still his quarters. I’m just borrowing his tools.” She stuck out her hand. “I’m Len.” 

Jo shook her hand and peered around her to the desk. Her eyes widened and she walked over to stand next to the desk. “Oh. You play clarinet?”

“Yeah.” She turned back to finish replacing a pad. “There’s going to be a music group on board and auditions are next month. I haven’t played in a long time, so it needed some maintenance.” She pressed the pad into place. “Do you play?”

“Uh-huh. I play bass clarinet.” 

“Cool. I played bass clarinet in high school.” 

“I had to leave mine behind,” Jo said sadly. She leaned on the desk to watch Len work. “Are you Scotty’s girlfriend?”

Len coughed in surprise. She was going to say ‘no’, that she was Assistant Chief and just friends with him, but the girl was looking at her with such innocently curious eyes and after all she’d been through, the last thing Jo needed was someone lying to her. “Yes,” she said. “But you have to keep it secret for now. I’m Assistant Chief Engineer, and Starfleet doesn’t really like the Chief dating the Assistant Chief and they may try to move me to another ship, so we can’t tell anyone until we’re away from Federation space. Can you keep that secret?”

The girl nodded and smiled. “It’s like I hid until the ship was far away from Earth, so dad couldn’t send me back.” Satisfied with the answer, the girl turned back to the clarinet. “My friend Ari plays bass clarinet, too. She helped me hide that I ran away. I hope she doesn’t get into trouble.” 

From what she heard from Scotty this morning, Jo’s friend had eventually confessed the whole plan to the police. The Captain had found Jo just before word reached the ship. “I think people will understand. You wanted to be with your dad.” 

“Yes,” Jo said. “At least someone understands,” she sighed. 

Len smiled and continued her work. Jo settled on her knees next to the desk to watch. “Dad was really angry with me this morning,” she finally said.

“He was scared.” Len put the last pad into place. She wasn’t sure if she should be talking to Jo about this, it wasn’t her business, but the girl sounded so sad. “He loves you very much, Jo.” 

“Jo!” McCoy’s voice bellowed from through the bathroom. 

Jo sighed again, resigned to her fate. 

McCoy came storming into Scotty’s quarters. “You can’t keep running off!” he shouted at her. 

“I didn’t run away! I was bored! I came to visit Scotty, but he’s not here so I was talking to Len.” 

Anxiety prickled up Len’s back as McCoy glared at her. She hated being caught in the middle like this. “She’s fine, Doctor,” Len said. “She was just watching me work on my clarinet.” 

McCoy opened his mouth to yell again, but then sighed. “You need to tell me when you leave the quarters, Joanna,” he ground out. 

“You were sleeping,” Jo shot back defiantly. “Since you weren’t feeling well this morning, I didn’t want to wake you from your nap. ” 

Len raised her eyebrows at McCoy, pleading with him to accept her explanation. His daughter had only been worried about him. 

“Don’t do it again,” McCoy gruffed. “Always tell me when you’re going somewhere. I worry about you.”

Jo pouted and looked at her father with doe-eyes. “I will, Daddy. I’m sorry.” 

Len bit her lip and looked away. Oh, man, how many times had she used _that_ on Karl and Greg when she was young and in trouble…

“I apologize if she was being a bother, Len,” McCoy said. 

Len shook her head. “Nah. Fellow clarinetist.” She beamed at Jo and an idea struck her. “Maybe Jo could audition for the music group, too?” Jo squealed with glee, but McCoy scowled at her. “It will give her something to do on the ship,” Len said, trying to smooth things over with the Doctor, because apparently she had crossed a boundary. “So she won’t be bored and be tempted to wander off?”

“Pleeeeaaaase, Daddy?” Jo pleaded. 

McCoy sighed. “I’ll think about it.”

 

**Stardate 2260.160, 1445 hours, Enterprise Theater**

“Nervous?” Len asked. 

Jo nodded. “What if I suck?”

“You don’t suck.”

Len patted her on the shoulder. She wasn’t even embellishing the truth. Jo really was very talented for her age on the bass clarinet. They had been practicing together since Dr. McCoy had finally agreed to let Jo try out. Barry had decided to let instruments audition in groups up to a quartet, so Len and Jo were performing a duet of Bach’s Two Part Invention 13. Len had helped her replicate a bass clarinet and for the past month they had used McCoy’s now empty quarters—after father and daughter had moved to a VIP suite turned family quarters on Deck 4—as their practice room. 

For Jo it was easy. She had last played in her school band just over a month ago. For Len, it had been eight years since she played in her high school band. She hadn’t played in any groups at the Academy. Not only because of her course load, but starting the Academy at fifteen also put her way behind most of the Academy band members. But she’d give this a shot. At worst, Milekey would turn her down. At best, she’d have something else to occupy her for the next five years.  

The theater was crowded with people when they got there. Len pushed aside the familiar feeling of anxiety and went in, Jo at her side. Up on stage, Lt. Milekey was running the brass auditions. Emily was there with her French horn and Len gave her a wave and an encouraging smile.

Len spotted Carolyn in the back of the theater, perched on the edge of a chair and quietly running through scales on her flute. She and Jo made their way through a group of strings to go sit by her friend. 

“Hello, Ms. Paul,” Jo said in a whisper. She hauled her bass clarinet case up across two seats and opened it. 

Len sat on the other side of Carolyn and perched her case on her knees. She opened it and began assembling her clarinet. “Are they almost done?” Len asked quietly, nodding towards the stage. 

“Just the trombones left,” Carolyn whispered back. “Then it will be our turn.”

Len set the case on the floor and blew into the instrument to warm it up. She spotted Uhura sitting in the front row of the theater seats, making notes on a PADD. The vocalist auditions had been this morning, so she was most likely here to help Milekey with the instrumental auditions. 

When the brass had finished playing their audition pieces, the woodwinds filed up onto the stage. Len and Jo sat together at the end of the row of clarinets. 

“I don’t see Dad,” Jo whispered to her. 

Len looked out into the auditorium. There were only a few non-musicians out there, mostly sitting at the back to stay out of the way. Len didn’t see Dr. McCoy either. “Something may have come up in sickbay,” Len said. 

Jo shrugged. “He’s never been to any of my concerts,” she sighed. 

Len was tempted to get on the comm and call McCoy to remind him. But the auditions were starting already and she and Jo were up second. McCoy had until the clarinet quartet finished the Overture to The Marriage of Figaro to get here. 

Minutes ticked by. Len hoped McCoy’s absence wouldn’t affect Jo’s audition. Things were still a little tense with her dad, and Jo could use the stress relief of being a part of the music group. 

The quartet finished their piece and got up. Len and Jo moved to take their place. Just as they sat in the chairs, the theater doors opened and Len saw McCoy slip in and take a seat in the last row. Len glanced sideways and smiled at the huge grin on Jo’s face. 

 

**2045 hours, Deck 15, Warp Core Simulator**  

Scotty was in a meeting, so Len was all alone in the simulator lab tonight. Which probably helped her to actually get some work done, because Scotty tended to distract her when they were alone in here. 

Len checked the readings on the console. There hadn’t been any other attacks on the system. Maybe it _had_ just been Romaine in a jealous fit. Since the sabotage, all of her adjustments had been running as expected, which meant she actually was on track for her idea to work. If all went well, she could eventually have an engine design that ran at Warp 9.

Her PADD beeped at her and she checked the message. It was from Scotty.

**Create an emergency in engineering I need out of this briefing.**  

Len rolled her eyes. **No** , she typed back. Scotty had been complaining about staff meetings since the first week of their journey. He had gotten too used to being the senior officer on the ship during the refit, and only having meetings if they were absolutely necessary. 

**Please? Spock’s droning on about some bloody planetary system.**  

**No** , she replied.

**Not even if I ply you with sex?**

Len giggled. **I don’t need to do anything to get sex from you. You would break first.**  

There was no response and Len assumed he had started paying attention in the meeting. Or Spock had caught him sending her messages. That would be not good, if he caught the Chief Engineer propositioning the Assistant Chief over PADD messages. Not a disciplinary meeting she was looking forward to.

Her PADD beeped again. **Maybe the warp manifold could overheat?**

She sighed. **I’m in the simulator and I’m trying to work. Why don’t you bother Keenser?** She hoped Keenser didn’t find out she suggested it.

**I already did he’s ignoring me now.**

Well, Keenser had the right idea. Honestly, Scotty could be like a kid sometimes. She pushed the PADD aside and continued checking her readings. The magnetic containment was definitely improving the efficiency of the reaction. Now she needed to test the modifications to the warp coils. They needed to handle more energy to get to Warp 9, and—

The PADD beeped. **Len? Are you still there?**

She slapped palm to face. She wasn’t going to get anything done if he kept this up. **No, I’m not here.**

The PADD went silent again and after a few minutes Len worried if she’d upset him. Scotty had just been bored and it wouldn’t have killed her to occupy his time for a few minutes…

The door to the lab slid open. “Yer last message was incorrect, Lieutenant Amell,” Scotty said as he walked into the lab. “Ya _are_ still here.”

Len looked up at him as he came to stand beside her. “Are you mad at me?”

Scotty smiled and shook his head. “Of course not, lass.” He bent down to kiss her. “I should be askin’ ya that question.” He slumped into the chair next to her. “I’m sorry for annoyin’ ya, but Spock had to give us every bloody detail of Pyrithia, even its axial tilt. Which is 27°, by the way. So now you can sleep better at night, knowing that.” 

Len glanced sideways, giving him a coy smile. “I can think of more interesting ways to sleep better at night.” Scotty waggled his eyebrows and Len giggled. 

Scotty picked up a PADD to read while Len finished up her adjustments to the simulator. He didn’t talk to her, but kept one hand on her back and lightly rubbed her shoulders as she worked. 

“What’s so interesting about this planet?” she asked after the last update was made. “Can you tell me?”

Scotty shrugged. “They’re lookin’ for those Vulcans. The V’tosh somethings…” 

“ _V’tosh ka’tur_ ,” Len supplied. A nomadic group of Vulcans that had left their homeworld long ago. She wondered if they knew, if their psychic abilities had told them that their planet and most of their people were now gone. She was sad for them: she had only lost half a city.  

“The Captain is sendin’ away teams down to talk to the traders.” Scotty leaned close to her ear. “Which means we’ll be sittin’ in orbit for a few days, with nothin’ much to do.” He nuzzled her ear. “No idea what I’ll do with my free time.” 

Len smiled. “I’m sure you’ll think of something.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Stardate 2260.166, 1720 hours, Deck 7, Sickbay**

Len rushed into sickbay. She had heard through the ship’s rumor mill that Gaila, Carolyn, and Gwaloth had been injured on the away mission. On the way to Deck 7 she contacted Chekov. He and Gaila had started…something. Whether it was casual sex or more serious, Len wasn’t quite sure and really didn’t want to ask: Chekov would be mortified by his ‘big sister’ asking him things like that, while Gaila would jump at the opportunity to share far more juicy details than Len wanted to know. 

Gaila and Gwaloth were standing, thankfully, but Carolyn was in a bed and looked like shit. She was sleeping—or maybe unconscious—and her face was severely bruised around her nose and cheek. If that’s what she looked like _after_ medical treatment, Len was horrified about what she must have looked like before. 

“What the hell, you guys?” Len stalked over to the end of Carolyn’s bed to stand next to Gaila and Gwaloth.

“We got jumped,” Gaila said. Her face was bruised, as were her arms—why the hell was she in that skimpy outfit?—and her right hand was wrapped in a bandage. Gaila looked around, then leaned close. “Slavers,” she whispered. 

“Shit.” Len was going to give her friend a hug, but thought better of it given the bruises. Slavers were not people to mess with. “How did you escape?”

“The Orion fighting dance helped,” Gaila said. She held up her hand and weakly wiggled her fingers. “Though I still ended up with fractures in my hand from punching one of them in the head.” She looked glumly at her fingers, where her usually tidy nails had been cracked and broken . “And remember that salt vampire thing you showed us?”

Len nodded. Her dads had managed to leave early for their archaological survey on M-113—thanks to Khan, of all people, who was taking his Klingon ship on a test run in that direction. On arrival at the planet, they had found a single survivor of the original survey team, along with the ‘salt vampire’. The M-113 creature was a shapeshifter and had taken the form of the man’s dead wife. Creepy.

“Gwaloth turned into one,” Gaila said. She grinned. “She took most of those bastards down.” 

Len turned to Gwaloth. “You’re okay?”

“Yes,” Gwaloth said. “I heal very quickly. And the M-113 creature’s form was quite robust. I merely got an overdose of salt.” 

Eww. Len didn’t want to think about that too closely. She regarded Carolyn next. It had been a rough month for her friend. Carolyn hadn’t made the cut for the music group, and while she said she had expected it, Len knew it still stung. And now Carolyn was getting beat up by slavers. “How’s Carolyn?”

“She got the worst of it,” Gwaloth said sadly. “Nothing life threatening, but the doctor is keeping her asleep to aid in healing.” 

“She didn’t go down without a fight, though,” Gaila said. “Carolyn kicked some ass.” She smiled. “Or maybe ‘kicked some testicles’ would be more appropriate?”

“Gaila!” Chekov came racing into sickbay. “Are you all right, _lybimaya moya_? 

“Bruises!” Gaila blurted when he tried to hug her. She put her arms around him—gently—instead. “I’m fine. Gwaloth saved our asses.” 

“I am very glad of that,” Chekov said, and put his hands on Gaila’s saved ass as he kissed her. Len made a gagging noise—paybacks and all that. Chekov flipped her off behind Gaila’s back. 

“Okay, that’s…” McCoy paused, stared at the couple making out in his sickbay, and shook his head. “That’s enough for today,” he said, continuing over to Carolyn’s bedside. “Lieutenant Canningham, I need you to go see Nurse Oli to get your sodium levels checked again before you leave.”

“Certainly, Doctor.” Gwaloth waved goodbye, then glided away to the other side of sickbay.

“My patient needs some peace and quiet, so everyone else…” McCoy looked at Gaila and Chekov again, then at Len. “Can you get them out of here?”

“Yes, Doctor.” Len walked away, catching Chekov’s arm as she passed them to drag him away. “Come on, lovebirds. We’re being evicted.” 

Once out in the hallway, Len let him go. “Okay, you two can go…have fun. Elsewhere.” 

Gaila waggled her eyebrows and took Chekov’s hand to drag him off. They passed Lieutenant Romaine coming towards them. Romaine had to step out of the way so she didn’t collide with Chekov. Once the couple had disappeared into the lift, Romaine continued towards Len. “It must be hard, trying to be happy for your ex-boyfriend’s new relationship,” she said. 

Len frowned at her. First, because Romaine was even talking to her about something like this. And second, because she had _no_ idea why she would think…oh, wait. Romaine had caught Chekov coming out of her quarters last summer. Well, she had nothing to hide. She was only weeks away from being able to go public with her own relationship. “He’s never been my boyfriend,” Len said, making sure to add shock and confusion to her tone. “I have no idea where you got that idea. He’s a family friend.” 

Romaine raised her eyebrows and Len wondered why the hell this woman was so interested in her love life. She thought the sexual harassment lecture from Kirk had put an end to Romaine’s pursuit of Scotty. Whatever. She stalked past Romaine to go to the lift. As long as the woman didn’t sabotage her simulator again or go anywhere near Scotty, she didn’t give a fuck. 

 

**Stardate 2260.168, 1400 hours, Deck 7, Sickbay**

It was two days before McCoy cleared Carolyn for visitors, which made Len wonder if something more serious was wrong with her friend. When she arrived in sickbay, Carolyn was awake and the bruises were gone. But she looked worn out for someone who had supposedly been sleeping for two days. 

“Hey,” Len said as she approached the bed. “How are you feeling?”

“I’ve been better, I’ve been worse,” Carolyn said. Her voice was calm, but underneath the covers her hands were clasped in her lap, fingers fidgeting. 

Of course anyone would feel twitchy after being attacked, but Len thought there was something more to it. Perhaps being in sickbay brought back memories of her car accident? “I bet you’re sick of being in in here,” Len said. She sat on the end of the bed. “We should all do something fun when McCoy let’s you out.” 

“God, yes,” Carolyn breathed. But she still looked uneasy and she was hunched forward as if there was a weight on her shoulders. “I need to get out of my mind.”

“Is there…something more going on?” Len asked. “McCoy wouldn’t let us see you yesterday. He said you needed more rest. Were you hurt worse than we thought?”

Carolyn grimaced. "It wasn't that bad. I think. I've had worse." She rubbed her hands over her face, then flinched as if it pained her. She had lost her fingernails in the fight, so they had to be regrown. Ouch. “I just ... had really bad dreams," Carolyn explained. "So I guess Doctor McCoy wanted to make sure I don't overdo it. Or something."

Worse? Len wondered just how bad that car accident was. With all the safeties built into ground vehicles, serious injuries were rare. "I can sympathize on bad dreams," Len said. "I had terrible nightmares after San Francisco. They only really stopped when…" Her face went warm. She was pretty sure Carolyn had already figured it out, after he little slip at dinner a few weeks ago. “When I’m with Scotty. Commander Scott.”

"Ha!" Carolyn brightened, the tension going out of her hands and the weight seeming to lift from her shoulders. "Am I right or am I right? Is there something you want to tell me ... or maybe rather something you NEED to tell a counselor, what with rules and regs and things?"

Len glanced around to make sure no one else was in hearing distance. "We're keeping it low-key, until we're far enough away that Starfleet can't do anything if they disagree with the Chief Engineers being together. Then we'll go see Dr. Lestrade. I know him pretty well,  I was seeing him about my nightmares. So I think he'll be sympathetic to our situation."

"Smart move." Carolyn nodded. "It's just a formality, really ..." She seemed calmer now as she studied her new fingernails. "I know I should talk to someone. It's just not that easy ..."

Len knew that too well. The memories gave her a twinge of anxiety in the back of her neck, memories of those first awful days she had spent as the walking dead until her parents had intervened. “Oh, trust me. I know. My dads nearly had to tie me up and drag me in to see the counselor after San Francisco.” Len sighed. It seemed like so long ago. A different life. A different _her_. “I didn’t think it would help at the time, but it did. Eventually. It wasn’t easy, but it was worth it.”

Carolyn took a deep breath. "I ... I'll see how it goes. Tomorrow I have an appointment with the Captain. And frankly ..." Another tight breath. "I guess I'd rather stay here and have some more regen therapy?"

"Don't worry about talking to the captain. I haven't talked to him much, but he seems a pretty cool guy. Scotty likes him a lot. Says he's one of the best captain's he served under, even for being so young." Len smiled, finding an opening to distract Carolyn from her meeting. “I could send Gaila to distract you beforehand. I'm sure she’d tell you all about her last date with Chekov, in glorious, holo-accurate detail.” Len wrinkled her nose at the memory of their dinner conversation last night. She didn’t think she’d ever seen Scotty or Chekov blush so red. “Gwaloth invited her to join the knitting group, by the way, so you’ll probably hear all about it anyway at the next meeting."

Carolyn blinked. "What's she going to knit? Lingerie? Penis warmers? Tentacle porn?"

Len giggled. "Gaila's bluntness about sex takes some getting used to, but she's a good friend." Len lowered her voice. "And she has a stash of Romulan ale if you want to try it. Though I'd be careful with that. The side effects are … kind of unpredictable."

Carolyn raised her eyebrows. "Do I want to know?"

Len squirmed under Carolyn’s questioning stare. “No, you probably don’t.” She winced. "Well … yes, if you're going to try it, you should know …" Len pressed her palms to her burning cheeks. "It … uh …” 

“Go on,” Carolyn said. “You can’t leave me hanging.” 

Len grimaced in embarrassment, then leaned close to Carolyn. “It makes some humans really horny,” she whispered. 

Carolyn clapped her hand to her mouth to muffle her laugh but forgot about her tender fingers. “Ow! Ow!” she groaned through her giggles. She flexed her abused fingers, then smiled at Len, eyes wide and (not so) innocent. “And you know this how? And was Commander Scott involved?”

“At our little celebration after the mission launch. And yes, he was.” Len swallowed her discomfort. If she could cheer Carolyn up by telling her an embarrassing story, then she would. She knew all too well the darkness a person could get trapped in after trauma. “If Dr. McCoy and Gaila hadn’t left when they did, they would have gotten quite the show.”

“Len!” Carolyn giggled into the back of her hand—more careful of her healing fingers this time—but then an odd look came over her face. The smile faded into a frown. “Is there something going on between Dr. McCoy and Gaila?”

“What?” Len blinked in surprise at the question. It seemed an odd thing to ask, considering how Gaila and Chekov were all over each other lately, but then Carolyn wouldn’t necessarily know that. But why the frown? “No, nothing going on with them. Gaila’s seeing Chekov now. And McCoy …” She shrugged. “Gaila told me she tried to fix him up with her cousin this summer. But he turned her down.” Which was too bad, the guy needed to get laid. He was under way too much stress. “He’s got a lot on his mind, with his daughter and the captain’s recovery from last year.”

Carolyn nodded. “Yes. He has had a difficult time this year. Poor man.” 

Len caught the wistful smile on Carolyn’s face. “Why do you ask?” she said coyly. “Interested?”

“What?” Carolyn’s eyes widend in shock. “Oh…” 

The bright pink that bloomed on Carolyn’s cheeks confirmed Len’s suspicions. So Bones apparently had a suitor. Well, a _prospective_ suitor at least. The poor man certainly could use someone in his life. And Carolyn was a no-nonsense type who would be good for him. She wouldn’t let him wallow in his misery, just what he needed from a partner.

“But … I don’t think that would be a good idea,” Carolyn said. 

“Why?” Len didn’t believe her. Not the way Carolyn’s face fell and her shoulders slumped again. She imagined that was much how she herself had looked right before Scotty had taken her to San Francisco that first time. “He’s a good guy,” Len said encouragingly. 

“I know,” Carolyn said. The shy smile crept back for a moment before vanishing again. She shrugged. “It’s just…I have a hard time with trust these days. But I do trust him.”

“Trust whom?”

Len jumped at the familiar voice behind her. So did Carolyn, who looked up wide-eyed at Dr. McCoy. 

“Don’t sneak up on us like that,” Len scolded. 

McCoy just chuckled and went to check the readings on the bed’s monitor. He didn’t look flustered, so he probably hadn’t heard anything important—like that they were discussing _him_. “I don’t _sneak_ in my own sickbay,” he said. He tapped on his PADD a few times, then looked at Carolyn. “How are you feeling, Lieutenant?”

“Better,” Carolyn said. She glanced up at McCoy, then down again as her cheeks went pink. “It’s been nice to have some company.”

McCoy studied her for a moment. “You look a bit flushed, Lieutenant Paul.” He waved his tricorder sensor over her. “Are you sure you’re feeling all right?” 

“Well,” Len said and stood up. “I should get back to work, and leave you to your doctor-patient…stuff.” She waggled her eyebrows at Carolyn from behind McCoy’s back, which made Carolyn go a bit deeper shade of red as she glared at Len. “Scotty’s probably wondering where I am anyway.” She waved at Carolyn. “See you later.” She shot another meaningful glance at McCoy before turning to leave. A few steps away she paused and glanced over her shoulder. “Take good care of her, Doctor McCoy!” 

She made it to the hallway before the giggles let loose. Oh, god, Carolyn was going to kill her.


End file.
